duckwhacker

I was wondering if anyone on the forum has used horse feed for deer? A friend of mine has contacts in the local feed stores. He is a salesman and he told me that he could get me horse feed at close to nothing. He said that during the summer the feed tends to get infested with bugs and the feed stores have to throw it out. He said that the store owners get a small reimbursement from the feed manufacturer for each bag they have to throw away. My friend said that we could get the bags of horse feed for pennies on the dollar and use them in the winter to feed the deer. Has anyone ever heard of this or is this guys full of horse puckey.
Your thoughts?

vtbuckrulrss

my parent's feed the deer, and they absolutely love horse grain. but they really like horse grain with molasses. just remember, feeding them really isn't a great idea, if you do, make a trough to keep the feed off the ground and out of their urine/feces. and it takes a lot of feed, and a lot of room for one deer to be happy. plus, once one comes in and figures things out, others will follow. what started as a handful for my folks a few years back grew to an all-time high last winter of 42 feeding at one time. not good for our habitat at all in that spot. if you compare the ingrediants between the two, you will find them very similar, which is why our local feed stores sometimes push the horse grain over the deer feed they sell.

Wild Work

Horse feed is ok. The best thing I have found is corn/deer cow mix. At a ratio of 75/25 to start. Late Jan. and slowly go to 25/75 by mid march when greenup starts. It helps deer get through the winter and produces a quaility deer herd.

huntress206

First things first, I don't advocate baiting deer. That said, I'm answering you from a biological standpoint with regard to nutrition. Feeding a wild deer a high-energy grain is not the healthiest thing to do. I know whole corn can get extremely expensive, but that pleases the deer and is healthy for the wild guys.

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